The government has had a messy few weeks: that much is clear. And the latest mess, which is the row following the Panama Papers leaks, is still all over the press a week after the story broke. There are apparently more revelations to come.
But the government has also settled into a pattern of having multiple damaging rows which are played out in the media over days, with a series of ill-judged responses making matters worse, followed by an attempt to calm things down in the House of Commons on a Monday afternoon. Before recess, there was the medley of statements on the resignation of Iain Duncan Smith and the subsequent U-turn on benefit cuts, and yesterday we were treated to David Cameron’s statement addressing his tax arrangements, Sajid Javid trying to play catch-up on the steel crisis and David Lidington defending the government’s decision to spend £9.3
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